The proposed work will study the means by which social speech is initiated and sustained among preschool children. The bases of communication are conceived as both formal and substantive. The formal aspects involve the distribution and organization of interpersonal behaviors; the substantive aspects involve the content of the meaningful acts performed. The spontaneous speech of peer dyads, 3 to 5 1/2 years of age, will be analyzed to determine the role of temporal parameters of speech in the integration of ritual play episodes and of conversation. A speech act analysis of sequences of responsive speech will attempt to discover the structures underlying increasingly extensive and complex conversational interactions.